Al Blount set to become Pen Argyl's next boys basketball coach

Former Bethlehem Catholic and Lincoln Leadership Academy coach Al Blount is set to become the next boys basketball coach at Pen Argyl.

He has been recommended by the athletic council and is expected to be to approved by the school board on Tuesday night.

The 52-year-old Blount, who played basketball for Terry German at Dieruff, had wanted to get back into coaching almost from the moment he resigned from Lincoln in March.

He guided the charter school -- in the program's first year of existence -- to a 12-12 record, but expressed some philosophical differences when he left.

Previously, he was at Becahi for three seasons, posting a record of 24-42, 7-35 in the Lehigh Valley Conference.

He was eager to get back at a larger school and Pen Argyl had an opening after Coy Stampone left to become the head coach at Northampton.

“I'm ecstatic,” Blount said. “Pen Argyl has been around for 100 years. Whoever thought I'd be coaching at Pen Argyl, but the bottom line is it doesn't matter where the kids come from -- Parkland, Emmaus, Pen Argyl -- I want to teach kids basketball and teach kids life lessons. I am looking forward to it.”

Don Dentith, Pen Argyl's all-time leading scorer, is a good friend of Blount's and runs The Feeder Program, an AAU youth basketball program, with him.

“We've had numerous kids from Pen Argyl in our program, so it is not unfamiliar to me,” Blount said. “I look forward to coaching the kids at Pen Argyl. I look forward to letting the parents know that we're all one team. We can't be successful without the parents. That's my mantra going in. We need the parents to buy in. We need good conversations at home and when that happens, you can have success without any outside forces trying to derail the train.

“It's very important that I get up there and earn the respect of the parents and earn the respect of the kids and then the rest is easy.”

Athletic director Tim Egan said that Blount was chosen because “he's the best candidate, by far. He has the most experience in terms of high school coaching and his playing career. He has experience in coaching kids from his youth program. He's just the best fit because he is very enthusiastic and his passion for basketball and helping children is very clear.”

Egan said there was less than 10 applicants, but “we still had four candidates who we were very happy to interview.”

The Pen Argyl School District has been locked in a dispute with a parent who has alleged that his sons have been victimized by racism in regard to playing time on the basketball team.

The district took the step of having the parent banned from district events in January after the parent was cited for allegedly making defamatory comments and posting videos about Pen Argyl basketball team players on Internet message boards and adding negative commentary.

Parents complained the videos and comments traumatized their children.

Egan said the hiring of Blount, an African-American, had “absolutely nothing to do with race.”

“I would have considered Al the last time we had an opening, the time before that, any time he would have applied,” Egan said.

Egan said he likes the approach of Blount, who “will give the kids a lot of freedom that the kids will respond well to. He's very player-oriented.”

He said he believed Blount has learned from any mistakes he might have made in previous stints.“I heard a lot about him, but you also try to get to know someone and form your own opinions,” Egan said. “We talked about his previous stints and he said he learned from those other jobs and he’s a better coach for it.”

“I've always championed kids, I've always fought for kids,” Blount said. “What I have learned is that the best way to fight for kids is to give them another plan.

“I've also learned that it's best to go to a place where your talents can be celebrated. Go to a place where you're wanted rather than a place to where you think you want to go. Things have a better chance of working out that way.”

Current Comments

Groller, one boy being cut one year, and another boy who had a grade ceiling cap placed on him two years in a row both on the JV and JHS levels to reserve spots for certain kids, never before done in Pen Argyl history, is not a dispute "over playing time". Other small schools are able to fill their basketball teams with tall boys who actually have builds of men (and not coincidentally can play basketball), while the short and thin (and fat) boys are told to go home. Case in point, Belvedere, a HS of 552 kids who beat us 6-12-12 by 10 points (Pen Argyl HS has 663 students). You can’t win, even against the basically non integrated Colonial league or NJ teams, when you put two or three short guys or two or three guys who are severely underweight on the court at the same time. The Belvedere summer league team had maybe three players (one who was loaded with muscle) shorter than my 5’8” soph. boy. On Pen Argyl’s summer varsity team on 6-12, we had 8, yes 8 players under 5’8” (that’s half of all the 5’8” and under boys Pen Argyl school district boys who had positions in years past on MS to Varsity teams currently in grades 12 to 10), one who has an athletic build and can’t score, only one of who is muscular and has a game, and only one of whom has exceptional basketball skills.
So of incoming Pen Argyl varsity boys basketball team candidates in grades 10 to 12 (assuming the 9th grade cap won’t be removed) who have had past positions with playing 40 percent or more of game time, we have 6, yes, 6, boys who are a legitimate 5’8” or taller (my 5’8” younger boy would be 5’11” by the measurements last year). Can Pen Argyl win at the varsity level with only 6 players 5’8 or taller (only one who has proved an ability to score), or by having two members of the backcourt under 5’8”--9 likely grade 10 to 12 boys seeking positions are 5’4”(10th), 5’5” (12th), 5’5”(10th), 5’6” (11th), 5’6” (12th), 5’7” (10th), 5’7”(10th), 5’7”(11th), 5’7”(11th) --simultaneously on the court? If the criteria for a basketball team is winning, exactly how many Varsity boys team members should be under 5’8”? Realistically, 3 would be too many. Given that 2 of the under 5’8” crowd are 12th graders, that leaves one possible position on varsity for 7 boys in grades 11 to 10 who feel they have a right to occupy space on the Varsity team when at most one slot should be available.

The gutting of sports teams of future talent in Pen Argyl is not limited basketball. 4 years ago 4 seniors and juniors were cut from Varsity baseball for the Fab Freshman Four. On the team that year 4 more seniors and juniors were relegated to the bench so the Fab Four could be starters. A year later 2 friends of the Fab Four, the Touted Two sophomores caused 2 more juniors to be cut from the Varsity baseball team while two more upper classmen were relegated to the pine bench. The following two years, instead of developing talent, the Varsity baseball team had 2 or three Fab Four classmates on Varsity who did not contribute much of anything. The baseball team is destined for the basement for years to come, 12 Pen Argyl juniors and senior were cut of marginalized, younger players were cut so noncontributing classmates of the Fab Four could share in the glory of the “dynasty team” which in 4 years won ONE Colonial League Championship and Zero District 11 titles.

Basketball and baseball team membership should not about “family” and connections or other illegitimate considerations; it’s about serving the best students who are able to play basketball or baseball.

Groller also neglected to mention the 15 complaints of harassment brought against me by the Pen Argyl police and Morganelli which were withdrawn.

Posted By: William Blasi | Jun 13, 2012 11:52:21 PM

Obsessed parents are always a problem for HS sports. Once can see why there are problems at Pen Argyl....

Posted By: Mack | Jun 14, 2012 9:45:00 AM

Its a problem about race and discrimination, Mack. Just ask the Paek sisters, mixed race white Korean high school girls kicked out of the school district in 2006 because their step dad owned a house in Pen Argyl and one in Saylorsburg while Pen Argyl was eductating 5 to 10 white male athletes who lived outside the district.

Pen Argyl district previously discriminated against my older boy in refusing to place him in the advanced math program too. One letter to the US Dept of Ed, and a look at the PSSA math scores of the whites in the program and my boy got into the program. If the white teachers were grading and evaluating the PSSA results, my boy would not have got into the program.

Posted By: William Blasi | Jun 14, 2012 11:44:36 AM

Good lord, what a mess.
It was interesting how the guy was complaining in one paragraph how the Fab 4 or whatever was put in place as freshmen, and then how they did not want to develop talent in later years.
Was that not what they were doing with playing the freshmen?
What is the right way to do things Mr. Expert?
It is a MIRACLE that anyone wants to coach with all these critics and second guessers who are the experts in the stands.
Then, when you throw the other stuff in, what a mess.

Posted By: Commenter | Jun 15, 2012 12:09:28 PM

To above 6-15-12 at 12:09. The placement of a freshman or two on a JV basketball team is not unusal, infact prior to the grade level prohibition against my second son, Pen Argyl usually had 4 freshman on every JV basketball team. The placement of 4 Freshman on a Varsity baseball team, and ordaining these 4 freshmans starters, now that is more than a bit ridiculous.

Posted By: William Blasi | Jun 15, 2012 12:47:10 PM

"A year later 2 friends of the Fab Four, the Touted Two sophomores caused 2 more juniors to be cut from the Varsity baseball team while two more upper classmen were relegated to the pine bench. The following two years, instead of developing talent, the Varsity baseball team had 2 or three Fab Four classmates on Varsity who did not contribute much of anything. The baseball team is destined for the basement for years to come, 12 Pen Argyl juniors and senior were cut of marginalized, younger players were cut so noncontributing classmates of the Fab Four could share in the glory of the “dynasty team” which in 4 years won ONE Colonial League Championship and Zero District 11 titles."

Is it me, or do you contradict yourself? You complain of the freshman playing and the seniors picking splinters, but then you say, instead of developing players...?
Sounds like you just dont care for these guys, you have an axe to grind and you are trying to argue both sides in your favor.
Oh well, good luck.

Posted By: Commenter | Jun 15, 2012 1:32:58 PM

How does blount not get a 2nd interview at Dieruff where he went to school and not even a phone call from Allen for the girls job, but he gets a job at PAHS. You didn't hurt Blount you hurt the Allentown kids. Is it race or is he just black balled in the lehigh valley either way its wrong and his own kid had to suffer from it. Don't people see that he did not get any technicals at the charter school and he made districts. But while at Becca he gets technicals and tossed out of a game. When was the last time a coach in the LVC ever tossed out of a game maybe Groller should research that up because even when you steal the ball from a player up the side line that didn't even get a coach tossed. So what is it? I have to believe its the AD's and the hiring committees that are holding are kids back in Allentown not the kids. But it would be nice if you could look that up Groller and let us know who other then blount was ever tossed from a game.

Posted By: mark | Jun 15, 2012 9:49:46 PM

This Blasi guy is a tool.... Maybe your kids were just not good enough to make the team. Perhaps it is you who can not get past what you see in the mirror everyday. These coaches want to win, do you really think they say "hey we could win this game but I don't want to cause it will mean playing those kids". Come on Blasi be proud of your kids for trying out and putting fourth the effort. Your constant comments are just embarassing your kids. Your a joke

Posted By: trojan | Jun 28, 2012 1:15:03 AM

Trojan, boys who are aren't even average height and weight for girls their age don't deserve reserved spots on a public school basketball team. Nor does a boy who can't dribble with his left hand who was 5'6" and has never hit anything put a scoop or layup or free throw in his life deserve a reserved spot. Maybe trojan, you should take a look at the So. Lehigh Pen Argyl JV HS basketball game and Catasauqua Pen Argyl JV HS basketball game on youtube and see the socially promoted boys you are defending.

Blacks in the NBA in the 1970's and 1980's had a phrase for whites who got their positions reserved for them based on skin color. The whites were "stealin" or just "stealin it". Lenny Wilkins, NBA hall of fame coach and player wasn't picked for the Olympic team after leading his team to the NIT finals, while 4 white “players” you've never heard of made the team. John Carlos, Olympic track medalist of 1968 fame recalled how upon accepting a college scholarship to East Texas State, his name suddenly became "Boy" and his white coach attempted to sabotage his upcoming track meet by putting him through a ridiculously taxing workout the day prior, whereupon walking the back stretch the white coach approached John with a hammer in his hand. Stu Inman, college coach and NBA Portland scout recalls being interviewed for a men’s basketball coaching job at the University of Idaho where one of the administration told him, “Stu, out here we only play three of them at a time” them of course meaning blacks.